Why does the power go out during a thunderstorm

With storm season almost here, homeowners should be more aware of the power surges that are likely to happen. But what exactly is a power surge, and what triggers it? How can it affect you and your home? Find the answers to these questions in this week’s electrical blog post.

What is a power surge?

Generally, power surges occur when there is a boost to the overall electrical charge in the power lines. Technically, this phenomenon increases the electrical potential energy, causing excessive power to be discharged from the wall socket into appliances.

Furthermore, the spike in electrical current only last fractions of second but can reach thousands of Volts. And this is when it becomes a real danger for your electrical appliances.

Interested to find out more about how a power surge can affect your household? Call us at 1300 452 742 and talk to the experts today!

What are the most common causes of power surges?

Lightning strikes

First and foremost, power surges are very likely to happen during a thunderstorm. Why? Because lightning touching down your power line or near can lead to an extra spike in electrical voltage of millions of volts. Without any type of protection, electrical appliances do not stand a chance against a power surge caused by severe storms.

High powered electrical devices

Another common cause of power surges is the operation of high powered pieces of equipment like elevators, air conditioners or refrigerators. Typically, these devices require a lot of energy to switch on and turn off components like compressors and motors.

Whilst this type of surges can’t compare to the intensity of lightning strikes, they are severe enough to upset the steady voltage flow in the electrical system. When this happens, you should notice the lights flickering or blinking on and off in your house.

Bad or exposed wiring

In the same way, exposed wiring may result in a power surge over time. If the wires are not properly secured, rats, mice and other rodents could chew on them and gradually destroy the whole wiring system. This way, the electricity will no longer have a constant flow, ultimately causing a power surge.

When this thing happens, you may even smell smoke as the wires can melt or burn. Since DIY electrical work is far too dangerous in this situation, you should call in your local Jaric electrician to take care of the problem ASAP.

Power outages

Have you ever noticed how bright the lights are after a blackout? Basically, a massive burst of energy restores the power, which flows back into all appliances at once. Under those circumstances, you may experience a power surge unless you turn off your electrical devices during the blackout.

Tripped safety switch or circuit breaker

Whether it’s a fuse, circuit breaker or RCD, they all play a very important role in the whole electrical process. Typically, a safety switch tripping means it’s doing its job properly and protects you from a power surge. But if it’s damaged in the process, it can become a high risk down the track.

How can a power surge affect your home?

In most of the cases, power surges can cause damage to your electrical appliances. In f

In rare cases, power surges lead to unfortunate events such as electrical fires, which can possibly destroy the entire home. That is why we recommend you to recognize the warning signs of a power surge so that you, your family and your assets are safe at all times.

Talk to our experienced local electricians about power surges

Call Jaric Electrical at 1300 452 742 and get 100% worry-free services today.

Lightning can sometimes damage our electrical equipment and cause power cuts. We keep in close contact with the Met Office so we are well prepared for any weather forecast. We never know where lightning will strike until it actually hits, but lightning detection equipment in our control centre allows us to see lightning storms crossing our area.Although the weather is beyond our control we design our electricity networks to minimise the impact of lightning strikes by using lightning diverters on overhead power lines to reroute the power from the lightning strike safely to the ground, reducing the impact on our customers. When we refurbish overhead power lines we also use new techniques to increase the resilience and reliability of power supplies in such events. For example automatic switches turn the power off if lightning strikes our overhead lines, wait a few seconds and then turns the power on again.

If lightning strikes our overhead lines, or if tree branches or debris briefly touches the power lines causing these automatic switches to operate. Our electricity network is self-healing, therefore if the fault is transient it will automatically restore power supplies. We appreciate customers find these brief power cuts inconvenient but it protects our equipment from more serious damage and longer power cuts. Where the network does not ‘self-heal’ we send engineers to the scene to find and fix the fault.

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Lightning, the biggest chunk of pure electricity you can find, can be as perplexing as it is powerful. I learned it can leave us in the dark even before a strike. How can that be?

We’ve all played with magnets as children; odds are, you can remember putting one atop a table and moving it with a hidden magnet beneath. It illustrates the beautiful concept of a magnetic field — the region of magnetic influence surrounding an object. Electricity behaves in the same way, shrouded in an electromagnetic field.

Lightning, and all electricity for that matter, emits something called a “sferic.” Also known as a radio atmospheric signal, this is essentially the electromagnetic “shock wave” that ripples out in all directions immediately following a lightning strike. Close to the strike, this wavelet can cause erratic behavior in electronic devices by changing or enhancing the electric field.

Wayne Verno, a meteorologist at the Weather Channel in Atlanta, noticed some bizarre electrical activity in response to a thunderstorm on Monday. “We had a lightning strike to my neighborhood,” he said. “Just an incredible flash and powerful blast, and lightning data confirmed a direct strike.” But it was what happened immediately beforehand that caught his attention. “We lost power about a second and a half before the strike,” Verno said.

Could it be an eerie coincidence? Doubtful. The buildup of charge immediately before a nearby strike can cause power surges through the electrical grid. As free electrons move toward or away from the object that will be struck, they can exert a push/pull force on neighboring electrons — including those within your home’s wiring. If too many electrons move at once, they can blow a fuse — and knock out power.

Oddities are the norm when it comes to lightning striking homes. Strange electrical effects have been known to persist weeks or even months after taking a strike. Whether it be fried wires or problems with an alarm system, strange things can happen — and they do.

Sometimes, the gathering of charge preceding a strike can have wacky impacts, too. Verno is not alone. Many who have been close to lightning strikes report hearing static on their AM radios or walkie-talkies. Lightning emits a variety of frequencies but is most prominent at lower frequencies — meaning that effects are about 10 times greater to AM radio signals than to FM.

Even household appliances or handheld devices can “feel” when charges congregate. If you’ve ever been on a phone when lightning strikes, you may have heard this firsthand. A “pop” or burst of static accompanies the lightning immediately because the sferic propagates out from the strike at the speed of light — 100,000 times faster than associated thunder. This effect is the same whether you’re on a cellphone or landline — although you should not be using a corded phone during a thunderstorm, in case lightning travels through the circuitry.

I experienced the unique effects of a sferic myself. On May 2, I was riding up the H.E. Bailey Turnpike east of Lawton, Okla. As I was traveling east exiting a severe thunderstorm complex that would later spawn 17 tornadoes, lightning struck a nearby wind turbine. In replaying my dashcam footage, I noticed an unusual static sound coincident with the strike on tape — exactly the signature that the spark’s sferic briefly tripped up the current in my camera.

Lightning tracking employs this knowledge to our advantage. With a spattering of stations across the country “listening” for this radio fingerprint of lightning, it’s easy to do. When a probe “hears” a lightning strike, it can estimate the distance; by overlapping the known distances from three separate stations, software can pinpoint to within a few hundred meters the location of a strike.

Of course, if you’re Verno, you can detect lightning the old-fashioned way. After all, if lightning strikes your block, you’re going to know it.